To help the City of Mount Shasta with cleanup costs incurred by January’s massive storms, the federal government approved a declaration of major disaster in California for Siskiyou, Calaveras, Imperial, Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernadino counties.
“This is great news for us,” said Kevin Plett, Mount Shasta’s city manager. “It’s great to see the federal government recognizing our emergency.”
With President Obama’s March 8 approval of the declaration, the Federal Emergency Management Agency will pay for 75 percent of all eligible costs incurred to the city, Plett said. The state will pay 75 percent of the remaining balance, bringing Mount Shasta City’s responsibility down to approximately six and a half percent of the total costs incurred.
Eligible costs include the city’s emergency response during the storms as well as the cost of cleanup to public land. A share of the green waste debris collection site will also be eligible, Plett said.
The city and the county are still compiling the final cost of the storm’s cleanup, Plett explained, so no final number has been released. However, when Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger initially requested the major disaster declaration in February, a series of preliminary disaster assessments, more than $59 million in estimated eligible costs were identified, according to a press release from the governor’s office.
“This action by President Obama will get assistance where it’s needed most. It will also help reduce a significant portion of the financial burden the storms have placed on communities throughout California,” Schwarzenegger said in the release. “It’s important that we’re doing all we can to help these communities recover from the damageing effects of those powerful storms.”
The declaration also allows citizens to apply for various disaster assistance programs, including the US Housing and Urban Development’s foreclosure protection program for residents who were displaced by January’s storms.
Though Plett said he wasn’t aware if any Siskiyou County residents would be eligible for that particular program, the declaration “certainly opens the door for all kinds of assistance.”
For more information about programs HUD has to offer residents affected by January’s storms, visit www.hud.gov.
Mount Shasta, Calif. —
